Ask-A-Linguist Message Details

Subject:

Future of writing systems

Question:

There can be found some graphs and tables estimating the numbers
of speakers of the main languages in the following decades. However,
I did not manage to find any such estimate for the numbers of users
of the main writing systems. Are you aware of any source concerning
this?
Thank you very much in advance.

Reply:

You are right to refer to 'estimations' -- the figures supplied for the number of speakers of languages are just that. One of the additional problems with 'writing systems' is defining it. Is there one Roman alphabet or several? Is the version of Devenagari used for Hindi the same 'writing system' as the one used for Bengali? Cantonese/Mandarin? Old and new symbols?
Hours of fun in this calculation.....
Anthea